Create & Connect

The Bed-Stuy Create & Connect Fund is a hyperlocal micro-grant program offered annually and directly managed by The LP. The Fund seeds and supports the creative ideas or civic actions of artists, cultural practitioners, community organizers, activists, and neighbors whose proposals aim to enrich community life in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. 

During the 2024 cycle, we will provide $1000 grants towards each funded project, for a total of up to 20 proposals. We are looking for creative initiatives or civic projects that are rooted in community, foster meaningful connections, and ignite socially conscious conversations. In other words, we aim to support community building amongst neighbors through community-led action.

We encourage both individuals and groups to apply if you have a new project or an ongoing initiative that positively impacts and engages a group, audience, or community in Bed-Stuy. We are particularly interested in proposals that nurture creativity, uplift local legacies, foster community wellness, or inspire collective advocacy. 

Proposals that show potential for both creative and civic impact in Bed-Stuy will be prioritized. 

View the full micro-grant guidelines here.

Applications: Open Monday, April 1, 2024

Info Session 2:
Date: Thursday, April 25, 2024
Location: mi Centro BK, 1060 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Time: 6:15–7:30 pm EST

Applications: Close Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Decision: Notification Early June 2024

Learn more about the application process for the Bed-Stuy Create & Connect Fund from LP staff through this info session. The session will take place in-person at Macon Library. 

During the session, LP staff can answer any questions you have about the application process, provide tech support or troubleshooting with the Submittable platform, briefly review your drafted application for clarity, or provide feedback on your proposal idea.

Applicants

Self-organized groups or collectives (i.e. sewing club, writers group, mutual aid groups); formal organizations (i.e. block associations, tenant associations); and individuals (at least 18 years of age) living, working, or otherwise committed to and invested in Bed-Stuy are eligible to apply. Please note the legacy of place is a core value of this fund, so proposals must be responsive to or centered within the Bed-Stuy neighborhood and its communities. 

We also see the allocation of this fund as a way to help counter structural, systemic injustices in Bed-Stuy. Therefore, we will prioritize:

• Proposals led by residents born and/or raised in Bed-Stuy, generational Bed-Stuy residents, and residents who have lived in Bed-Stuy for more than 10 years
• Proposals led by individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, Native and/or People of Color
• Proposals led by individuals in the disability community, including immunocompromised individuals
• Proposals led by individuals who identify as LGBTQIA+

Types of Eligible Proposals

Proposed projects must include a publicly accessible component that activates or takes place in Bed-Stuy (between summer 2024 and summer 2025) and provides Bed-Stuy community members with the opportunity to experience, interact with, or contribute to meaningful initiatives across creative and civic practice. 

Public components may be held in-person, virtually, or some combination of both. Public components can include, but are not limited to: panel discussions, presentations, webinars, IG Lives, recording sessions, exhibitions, performances, festivals, listening parties, screenings, readings, and creative workshops. 

Preference is given to public programs or initiatives that are free and held live in community spaces outside of The Laundromat Project (i.e. libraries, parks, gardens, senior centers, storefront shops, restaurants, laundromats).

Eligible proposals may include, but are not limited to:

• Workshops and Classes
  • Art-making (i.e. painting, sculpture, printmaking, film, collage, dance, music);
  • Skill-sharing (i.e. Creating an Artist Portfolio, Grant Writing 101) 
  • Cultural activities (i.e. folk arts & traditions, ritual, storytelling) 
  • Community Teach-Ins & Public Education Workshops
• Storytelling Initiatives
  • Community Podcasts;
  • Story Circles & Readings;
  • Oral History, Material, and Digital Archives
• Public Performances or Outdoor Activations
  • Dance (i.e. hip hop, jazz, folk) 
  • Theater (drama / comedy / musicals); 
  • Spoken Word Poetry or Open-mic;
• Community and Place-based Projects
  • Public Murals;
  • Walking Tours;
  • Public Installations;
  • Creative Scavenger Hunts;
  • Sidewalk Chalk Art Competitions;
  • Community Bike Rides or Roller Skating activations;
  • Mapping and Wayfinding projects
• Gatherings for Intergenerational Community
  • Sewing or Knitting Clubs;
  • Black Women’s Book Clubs;
  • Game Nights;
  • Writing Groups;
  • Singing Circles
• Civic Engagement
  • Food or Clothing Drives;
  • Community Resource Pantries;
  • Wellness initiatives (i.e. herbalism & healing, yoga, double dutch, tennis);
  • Campaigns that strengthen “connections to place” in Bed-Stuy;
  • Mail or postal projects that encourage social connectedness;
  • Innovative activations around mutual aid or cultural organizing;
  • Community Gardening, Composting, or Sustainable Farming programs
• Support towards arts and cultural festivals including art making at block parties or fairs

Types of Ineligible Proposals:

• Solo production of art works made for personal practice
• Proposals with no involvement, impact, or engagement with additional stakeholders or a broader community in Bed-Stuy
• Projects, events, and/or activities that require an admission or participation fee

View the full micro-grant guidelines here.

At The Laundromat Project, artists are community organizers and community organizers are artists. We believe that to be an artist is to be a creative problem-solver. Creative problem-solvers tap into community and utlize resources to create and manifest ideas. 

By The LP’s definition, we consider art as any cultural tradition, practice, object, or action made with creative intent and grounded in community. This includes the visual, media, literary, and performing arts as well as archival curation, scholarship, oral history, education, healing, gardening, community organizing, activism, and other modes of cultural production. 

You do not have to consider yourself an artist or community organizer to apply.

Consider the following list of types of art: (categories and language adapted from Leeway Foundation’s Art and Change Grant)

We recommend all applicants review the program guidelines before submitting an application. View the full micro-grant guidelines here.

ELIGIBILITY

APPLICATION SUPPORT QUESTIONS

SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION

Notifications

DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS

If you have further questions, you can contact the LP community engagement team by email at [email protected].

View full micro-grant guidelines, here.

2023 RECIPIENTS

Michael Tonge

SRĐA

Kelsey Scott

Zaria Poem

Jessica Maldonado 

Ena K. McPherson 

View All Create & Connect Fund Recipients